He stopt, and looked to see how Cecilia bore these words.
"It is all at an end, Sir;" said she, with firmness; "but I have not yet heard your commission; what, and from whom is that?"
"I am thoroughly satisfied it is unnecessary;" he answered, "since the young man can but submit, and you can but give him up."
"But still, if there is a message, it is fit I should hear it."
"If you chase it, so it is. I told Mr Delvile whither I was coming, and I repeated to him his son's assurances. He was relieved, but not satisfied; he would not see him, and gave me for him a prohibition of extreme severity, and to you he bid me say--"
"From him, then, is my message?" cried Cecilia, half frightened, and much disappointed.
"Yes," said he, understanding her immediately, "for the son, after giving me his first account, had the wisdom and forbearance not once to mention you."
"I am very glad," said she, with a mixture of admiration and regret, "to hear it. But, what, Sir, said Mr Delvile?"
"He bid me tell you that either he, or you must see his son never more."
"It was indeed unnecessary," cried she, colouring with resentment, "to send me such a message. I meant not to see him again, he meant not to desire it. I return him, however, no answer, and I will make him no promise; to Mrs Delvile alone I hold myself bound; to him, send what messages he may, I shall always hold myself free. But believe me, Dr Lyster, if with his name, his son had inherited his character, his desire of our separation would be feeble, and trifling, compared with my own!"
"I am sorry, my good young lady," said he, "to have given you this disturbance; yet I admire your spirit, and doubt not but it will enable you to forget any little disappointment you may have suffered. And what, after all, have you to regret? Mortimer Delvile is, indeed, a young man that any woman might wish to attach; but every woman cannot have him, and you, of all women, have least reason to repine in missing him, for scarcely is there another man you may not chuse or reject at your pleasure."
Little as was the consolation Cecilia could draw from this speech, she was sensible it became not her situation to make complaints, and therefore, to end the conversation she proposed calling in the Miss Charltons.
"No, no," said he, "I must step up again to Mrs Delvile, and then be- gone. To-morrow morning I shall but call to see how she is, and leave some directions, and set off. Mr Mortimer Delvile accompanies me back: but he means to return hither in a week, in order to travel with his mother to Bristol. Mean time, I purpose to bring about a reconciliation between him and his father, whose prejudices are more intractable than any man's I ever met with."